Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom beaten without going to the Surface

Tears of the Kingdom: The Legend of Zelda Since its release, players have found new and inventive ways to challenge the game. Black_Hand_Gotthard, a Redditor named Black_Hand_Gotthard managed to beat the game even though he had never visited Surface of Hyrule. The dedicated player found ways to travel the world — even without the help of exploration-critical items like Link’s paraglider or the completed map sections from the Skyview Towers.

Black_Hand_Gotthard said they completed the run because they “smoked a little too much Sundelion and got a (at the time) brilliant idea.” They shared the feat via a Reddit post on Thursday with screenshots showing the ending cutscene and a screen that showed the maps for the Depths and the Sky Islands unlocked, but no map for the Surface. The user answered questions posed by curious commenters. They wanted to know how they did it. Zonai was used to navigate the Sky Islands that float above the Surface.

Black_Hand_Gotthard explains the process to beat the game. The first thing they did was travel from one sky island to another and complete all of the shrines. These shrines provided them with enough health for them to get the Master Sword, and then fight Ganondorf at the Depths. Fairies helped them to reduce the damage they took from falling.

The general strategy may seem simple, but the run itself is full of important details which could either make or break this playthrough. For example, if you don’t visit the Surface, you don’t get Link’s paraglider, so you need to find another way to get around the vast swathe of open Sky. Black_Hand_Gotthard explained that they use a mixture of Zonai wing and hoverbikes powered by Zonai charge to move around.

Additionally, navigating presents a challenge, since the Skyview towers on the Surface fill out the map for both the Surface and Sky layers — meaning Black_Hand_Gotthard had to navigate without a complete map. “At first I just used the binocular from the Purah Pad to mark close islands. After getting like half of the shrines I used a complete map so that I know where I need to go approximately,” Black_Hand_Gotthard said.

Then there are the temples. We won’t discuss spoilers, but completing the temples and their sage quests on the Surface is helpful, but not a requirement for beating the game. Black_Hand_Gotthard bypassed all the quests to navigate directly to two temples in the skies, which are indicated on the screenshot. Black_Hand_Gotthard’s biggest challenge was Colgera. She is located in the Wing Temple. A normal player would usually fly through the air with the paraglider, and then fight Tullin. However, that wasn’t an option in this case.

“Colgera was the hardest because I did not have a paraglider,” Black_Hand_Gotthard said. “You can use normal slime for water against Mucktorok. You can hit the seized construct against the walls with a full combo of your weapon or with bomb flowers.”

Unfortunately, players unlock the Hero’s Path by visiting Robbie on the Surface, so we won’t be able to see Black_Hand_Gotthard’s exact path. Still, it’s an impressive feat that’s inspired others in the Reddit thread to try it for themselves.